The Crown I Will Take From You - Chapter 256

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Part 2, Chapter 103

* * *

“Your Majesty, are you alright?!”

At the same time, silver flashed by a hair’s breadth.

Chezare’s greatsword unsheathed and severed the head of the creature that had been biting Jason.

Shaaaaa-!

Dark red blood spurted out.

Diangel, who had arrived a step too late, stared with shocked eyes at Medeia and Jason collapsed at her feet.

“Castulo, why did this one protect Your Majesty…?”

He certainly hadn’t seemed altruistic enough to sacrifice himself for others.

However, neither Medeia nor Diangel had the luxury to examine Jason’s condition.

Four remaining clones were still left.

“Be careful, Tom!”

“Don’t worry about me, look after yourself! Another one’s heading your way!”

Though they appeared like phantoms, the fire and powerful force the clones unleashed were real.

“Kugh!”

Tom, who couldn’t dodge the spikes protruding from one clone’s tail in time, clutched his shoulder.

“Krgh, these things are going even more berserk!”

He hastily pressed against his torn wound and gripped his sword with his left arm while shouting to Neryl.

Neryl and Tom, Chezare’s subordinates and Garo paired up to face the clones.

Kaaaaa-!

When Diangel eliminated one clone, the remaining clones became more ferocious.

As soon as Chezare confirmed Medeia’s safety, he immediately turned and aimed for the Evil Dragon’s main body.

His black aura pierced through the prison of flames like a spear.

Thung-! Taang!

However, the Evil Dragon’s hide was so tough that even his powerful aura bounced off.

The Evil Dragon’s red eyes fixed on Chezare.

Those eyes narrowed as if imprinting its adversary, and the Evil Dragon opened its maw wide.

콰아아아아아—

The Evil Dragon’s roar, Dragon Fear, echoed through the gorge and shook the heavens.

That resonance paralyzed the humans’ consciousness and carved deep terror into them.

“D-damn it, aaaah!”

“Don’t lose focus, Tom!”

Tom clutched his head in agony.

Being injured, he was especially vulnerable to that reverberation.

The pain felt like hammers pounding his brain, and he nearly dropped his sword.

“Break the bracelet!”

Then, Medeia’s shout rang out.

Tom recalled the small string bracelet his master had given him before entering the gorge.

A small cylinder hung from the bracelet’s knot.

Crack-!

When he broke the cylinder with his sword hilt, green powder like dried herbs spilled out.

Simultaneously, a clean and refreshing fragrance seeped into his nostrils.

The pain immediately dulled and his vision cleared.

Tom, barely escaping the agony, gasped for breath.

“Haa, haa…”

Luna Digitalis.

It was an herb especially effective for overcoming Dragon Fear and recovering one’s mind.

Meanwhile, after confirming Medeia’s safety, Chezare targeted the Evil Dragon.

Despite taking the full brunt of Dragon Fear closest to the main body, he remained unshaken.

“Garo, defend! It’s going right.”

Chezare’s black aura thrust between the prison of flames, trying to slice the Evil Dragon’s flesh.

The Evil Dragon also writhed violently against this persistent cage binding it and the insolent human.

“Krrrrr-!”

The prison’s flames wavered precariously under the Evil Dragon’s intensified resistance.

Terrence, who had been maintaining the magic to prevent the Evil Dragon’s escape, coughed up blood.

“Kugh-!”

“Brother, you have to hold on longer, if the main body breaks free now we can’t handle it-!”

“I know! Just hurry up and finish it!”

However, despite Terrence’s valiant struggle, the Evil Dragon’s main body finally managed to break through the prison of flames.

Flutter.

The freed Evil Dragon spread its massive wings to soar into the sky.

“Dammit-!”

Garo let out a scream-like groan.

The remaining four clones also stopped attacking and began gathering toward the main body.

The sky darkened to black, then ashen gray.

“No.”

‘It’s trying to trap us all in shadow.’

Medeia realized the Evil Dragon’s intention.

Her green eyes quickly surveyed the expedition’s situation.

Terrence spitting up blood, Garo limping. Tom unable to use his right arm.

Medeia and Chezare’s subordinates disregarded their injuries and charged after the retreating clones.

Chezare too wasn’t in perfect condition after facing the main body alone.

Unless he was a god, there would be limits to how long he could maintain his aura.

‘Think. Think, Medeia!’

She bit her lips roughly.

Among those here, there wasn’t a single one who wasn’t excellent or brilliant.

Yet they had come this far all because of her.

Believing only in her absurdly unrealistic plan to slay the Evil Dragon, they had joined this expedition.

She couldn’t let them die meaninglessly in this remote place.

‘I don’t want to lose them.’

A desperate resonance burst forth.

The moments shared with them on the way to this gorge flashed by like a revolving lantern.

Those warm memories without fear or anxiety, even unbelievably joyful at times,

as if trying to cover the painful memories of expedition life from her previous life.

‘Think. How do I bring it down? How do I solve this?’

To do that, she needed to divert the attention of the main body soaring into the sky.

Make it forget its original plan and turn its eyes this way.

Suddenly, a pool of blood caught Medeia’s eye.

It was the remains left by the Evil Dragon’s clone that Diangel had struck down earlier.

“Dragon blood contains will and memory. With just a drop of blood, they can recognize their kin and identify those who threaten them- such as ancient dragon slayers.”

Words from a team member in her past life came to mind.

Medeia stabbed her palm deeply with a dagger.

“Your Majesty?”

Red blood bubbled up between the white flesh.

She dipped her cupped hand into the dragon’s blood pool. Then scooped up a handful of the Evil Dragon’s blood.

The two bloods didn’t merge but swirled separately, at odds with each other.

The sticky, dark red dragon blood writhed as if alive while avoiding Medeia’s red blood, refusing to mix.

‘Come. Notice me.’

Her green eyes blazed with pale light.

At the same time, the Evil Dragon’s wingbeats that had been soaring through the sky came to a halt.

Those bright yellow eyes slowly turned, fully recognizing Medeia as a threat.

Medeia watched the scene for a moment, then moved her hand without hesitation.

“Your Majesty-!”

Leaving Diangel’s shout behind, Medeia brought the blood in her hand to her lips.

In her cold and calm eyes burned an unbreakable will.

“But blood that contains memories also holds curses along with power. Especially the Evil Dragon’s blood runs deeper and more persistent, so you must never carelessly touch it.”

Intense pain like swallowing a ball of fire spread through Medeia’s body.

The Evil Dragon’s blood that seeped in flowed through her blood vessels, refusing to mix. It felt like something was pounding her internal organs.

Violent heartbeats resonated throughout her entire body.

“Ahh…!”

Medeia’s waist buckled.

“Your Majesty!”

“Medeia!”

The echoing cries could not be heard.

Medeia bit her lips, trying to forget the pain.

‘I will survive somehow. Together with everyone, I’ll defeat the Evil Dragon and return.’

Blood and sand fell from her fist that gripped the ground and clutched gravel.

‘I will change it. I won’t let the past repeat itself again.’

It was the moment when her eyes, mixed with desperate longing and deep obsession, blazed bright blue.

“…!”

A brilliant light burst forth from the necklace around Medeia’s neck.

The light mixed with white and gold seemed to resemble pure holy power, or perhaps contained the golden light of Venus.

Kaaaaaaak-!

When the Evil Dragon’s scream rang out clearly upon facing the light.

All sounds split as if breath had stopped.

The Evil Dragon’s scream and her subordinates’ cries buzzed as if submerged in water, then soon became quiet.

The view before her eyes shattered like a broken mirror.

And soon, vivid afterimages appeared one by one over the fragments.

The first fragment showed vast light tearing apart the darkness that covered the wide earth.

And the second fragment showed the darkness, miserably shattered and pushed deep underground, boiling up.

In the third fragment, that darkness’s rage condensed into scales and bones, and from it the Evil Dragon was born.

However, at the moment of that birth, a ray of light shone upon the Evil Dragon’s body.

Kyaaaaaaak-!

The same painful scream of the Evil Dragon from moments before could be heard from within the fragment. As if reflecting some fragment of the past.

The last fragment magnified and showed the crack-like scars that ray of light had left between the Evil Dragon’s scales.

“Your Majesty!”

The vision before her eyes ended as the afterimages scattered completely.

“Haa, haa…”

Medeia clutched her chest and drew in breath.

‘What was it that I just saw…?’

“Your Majesty! It’s coming this way!”

Then, Diangel shouted.

The Evil Dragon was descending fiercely toward Medeia with its mouth open.

However, rather than those fierce fangs, Medeia’s eyes were fixed on-

‘Ah. There it is.’

She realized instinctively.

That golden scar she had seen in the afterimage just moments ago.

That was precisely the Evil Dragon’s reverse scale.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————